


Illuminate

by ZellaSunshine



Series: NCT Oneshots [6]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Non-Idol AU, Supernatural Elements, here we are, i h8 myself just a lil bit for adding angst but, merman!jeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-04-27 01:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZellaSunshine/pseuds/ZellaSunshine
Summary: Renjun is out drawing by the cliffsides and meets Jeno, who is very much not human.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> there *might* be additional parts in the future, but we're going to tentatively call it finished as is

Jeno wasn’t supposed to be this close to shore. He knew it was dangerous but… the human cities were so beautiful. If he swam close enough to shore he could see the building lights; Jeno thought they looked a bit like clustered stars.

Jeno was careful though; he made sure to only go close at night, and he never stayed long.. There were enough scary stories about what happened to the merpeople who were caught by fishermen..

Jeno had never even seen a human before but then… one night he got too reckless, got too close to the usually abandoned coastline… and he saw someone.

+++

Renjun wasn’t supposed to be out this late at night but… it was a full moon and he knew the light from it would make the coast look beautiful.

So here he was just past midnight, sitting just out of reach of the surf, flashlight tucked under his chin and sketchpad and pencil clutched tightly in either hand

He was focused on shading, trying to catch how the light from the moon was illuminating the jagged faces of the rocky coastline, and he notice Jeno until the boy was almost close enough to reach.

Renjun screamed, scrambled up from his seat, flashlight dropping and rolling towards the sea.

Jeno sunk back, frightened by the sudden loud noise, so that only his eyes and hair were visible above the water.

Renjun thought he should probably be running, but something about how nervous Jeno seemed made him sit back down and collect his sketchbook again.

“I’m sorry I screamed. You startled me.” Renjun reaches to put his sketchbook and pencil back in his lap.

The boy doesn’t come any closer, watching Renjun silently.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Renjun.”

Renjun is met with more silence.

He reaches down, feeling along the rocks for his flashlight.

“Jeno”

Renjun starts, dropping the flashlight for a second time.

“Jeno, that’s your name?” Renjun asks.

Jeno gives a shy nod.

Renjun smiles. “I like it.”

Jeno gives a small smile in return.

“Why are you in the water? It’s the middle of the night, aren’t you worried about getting lost?”

Jeno shakes his head.

“I stay in the water.”

“You.. stay in the- what does that mean?”

Jeno holds up a hand out of the water and… there’s webbing between his fingers.

“Holy shit.” Renjun breathes.

Jeno closes his hand again, shy.

“That’s so cool!” Renjun shouts, apologizing again when Jeno sinks lower into the water in surprise. 

“You think?” Jeno asks, head tilted to the side.

Renjun nods assuredly. “The coolest.”

Jeno smiles softly again.

“So you’re not like, human? What does that make you? Where do you live?”

“I’m not… supposed to say. It’s secret… it’s dangerous if I tell people.”

“Why’s it dangerous?”

“Humans aren’t nice to us.” 

“Oh.” Renjun frowns. “I’m sorry.”

Jeno shrugs, rippling the water around his shoulders, but then suddenly stiffens. “I need to go now. I stayed too long.”

“Oh, um, okay. Will you come back? I mean,” Renjun pauses, feeling awkward suddenly, “Will I get to see you again?”

Jeno hesitates for a long moment, but nods. 

He disappears almost immediately after, sinking below the surface and becoming invisible to Renjun. Renjun watches the ocean for a long while after Jeno disappears, wondering if any of that had even been real.

+++

Renjun finds himself no longer wanting to draw the moonlit coast, but instead the ocean waves, and the mysterious boy he had met. He hopes Jeno was telling the truth, that he would be back again.


	2. Chapter 2

Renjun finds that Jeno is not shy at all, the more time they spend together. 

They had been meeting at the coast every night and it was making Renjun drowsy during his classes at school but… honestly Renjun couldn’t bring himself to care. He loved the time he spent with Jeno at the coast when the rest of the world was asleep.

“You’re really pretty”

Renjun blushes bright red. “U-uhm thank you,, I think you’re pretty too.”

Jeno scoots forward, until their noses are almost touching. “Your cheeks are turning really red, are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m.. shy.”

“Why?” Jeno’s head tilts slightly in confusion.

Renjun tries to hide his face behind the sleeves of his shirt, leaning away. 

He mumbles quietly, “You said I’m pretty..”

“Oh.” Jeno grins wide. “Well it’s true. I really like your eyes, and all of you too but your eyes are really pretty.”

“Stoopppp you’re going to make me blush more.” Renjun whines, gently batting Jeno’s hands away when he goes to pinch Renjun’s cheeks.

Things are going well.

+++

Until they’re not. 

Autumn comes, bringing with it frigid winds and muted greys. Normally Renjun would be out in the woods with a set of pastels, trying to capture the warm colors of the leaves before they brown.

But Renjun spends most of his time down at the coast now. 

Jeno had gotten bolder, coming closer and closer to the daytime. (They had found an alcove to hide them from view, but Renjun still worried.)

But Renjun notices that as the weather cools, Jeno becomes more reserved again, until one day, as Renjun is sketching ice crystals just out of reach of the water, Jeno tells him he has a secret.

“A bigger secret than you being a merman?”

Jeno pouts but Renjun just laughs at him. “Tell me what it is then, come on.”

“I have to leave.”

“What do you mean.. Like today?”

“The weather.. The air has been damaging my scales.”

Renjun had tried not to ever stare at Jeno’s tail, Jeno had told him it was considered kind of rude, but Renjun looked closely at the patch of scales Jeno was pointing at, on his side right where the scales smoothed into skin. 

There were patches flaking off, and the blue color seemed duller, lacking the same brilliance still present in Jeno’s tailfin. And even worse.. There were places where the scales were cracking lower, along where Jeno’s hip would be if he had legs.

“Oh no.. does it hurt?”

“Kind of.”

They sit in silence for a time.

“Will you come back?”

“Of course I’ll come back.”

Jeno kisses his cheek. “Start looking for me again when the ice melts.”

 

But Jeno doesn’t come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o shit angst


	3. Chapter 3

It was a mistake telling Donghyuck about Renjun. He should have kept it a secret like he had been planning all along because now... well now Donghyuck wanted to meet Renjun too. 

Except Donghyuck was Donghyuck and would probably somehow end up Telling Renjun That Jeno Liked Him which was Not Okay.

And with Donghyuck clinging to him every waking moment of the day, how was Jeno supposed to sneak off to see Renjun again? He still hadn’t come up with a solution by the time the ice began to melt, when he had promised Renjun he would return.

But Jeno was afraid of what Donghyuck would say.

And more than that he was afraid that maybe something had changed over the long months of winter, that maybe Renjun.. had changed.

+++

He had. When Jeno gathers the courage to return to shore, a week into the warmth of spring, (and with Donghyuck trailing behind), Renjun looks… entirely different. Breathtaking. 

Renjun’s hair is dark now, and Jeno thinks it makes his eyes look even more captivating than before.

“I can see why you like him hyung, he’s pretty.”

“Please.. Don’t embarrass me Hyuck.”

“I would never.” Donghyuck smiles innocently, and then pushes past Jeno, swimming quickly to where Renjun is perched, cross legged, on shore.

+++

“Hello!” A sudden voice from the water shocks Renjun so badly that he starts, dropping his sketchbook into the sand.

Renjun turns quickly to the source of the noise, hoping to find Jeno, but… the voice wasn’t the same. And when he turns, he finds someone he does not recognize in the water waving at him.

“My name’s Donghyuck! I’ve heard so much about you it’s nice to finally meet youuuu.”

“Donghyuck!” a voice from farther out in the water. “Don’t scare him off!”

Renjun looks out and sees

Jeno

So he had come back as he had promised he would before the winter. And Renjun can’t stop the huge grin that appears on his face, shouting for Jeno, abandoning his sketchbook on the shore to wade out into the water and meet Jeno half way.

Jeno is quick to scoop Renjun up into his arms, holding onto him tightly.

“You came back.” Renjun mumbles against Jeno’s shoulder. “I was worried you wouldn’t.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long.”

Jeno thinks that he could hold Renjun like this forever, he really had missed the boy so much. But then..

“Awwww! You two are just the cutest.”

Donghyuck. 

Jeno sighs, loosening his grip only slightly on Renjun so that he can glare at Donghyuck over his shoulder. 

Donghyuck holds up his hands innocently. “What, it’s the truth!”

Renjun is blushing hard, refusing to lift his head from where it’s resting against Jeno’s shoulder. Not that Jeno is complaining.

There are so many things Jeno has to say, that he’s wanted to tell Renjun in the time they’ve been separated during the winter.

Instead Jeno takes this chance to run a hand through Renjun’s hair, to savor this closeness that he’s missed. 

“I like the new color, it’s pretty.”

Renjun is close enough for Jeno to reach his lips, if he dared.

Renjun runs a hand through his own hair. “I forgot you wouldn’t have seen it before, I’m thinking of changing it again.”

Donghyuck this whole time had been leisurely floating his way closer. “Well since I can obviously tell you two lovebirds are in a world of your own, I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you around~”


End file.
